The House of Besarab Will Welcome a Quartet of Noted Psychic Mediums on Opening Night Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 Including Marcia deRousse
It is said that the Hollywood American Legion Post on Highland Avenue near the Hollywood Bowl, the imposing 33,000-sq.ft. Egyptian Revival-Moroccan Deco edifice where the environmental play Tamara debuted in 1983 and broke all records by holding court there through 1994, has also long been home to wanderers from beyond. Now, as Terance Duddy and Theodore Ott's all-new take on the legend of Dracula, THE HOUSE OF BESARAB, prepares to breathe an air of spooky paranormal activity back into one of Los Angeles' most significant cultural monuments when it debuts there on Thursday, Nov. 12, four noted psychic-medium practitioners with a specialized penchant for raising the dead will join the opening night revelers to travel from incredible room to incredible room along with the other more earthly-bound audience members who will be shadowing the actors in this unique site-specific adventure that brings the unique experience of Tamara back to Los Angeles theatregoers.
Marcia deRousse, the diminutive "f"-bomb spouting vampiric expert on True Blood, whose portrayal of Dr. Ludwig has generated such fan interest that a popular fan written parody column has sprung up on the True Blood website, TrueBloodNet.com featuring "Ask Dr. L," plied her more mystical wares as the star of the TV series pilot Small Medium at Large, among many roles on television series. She was the mother of Matthew McConoughey and Gary Oldman in the feature film Tiptoes and worked on Highway to Heaven with Michael Landon, someone she believes to now be one of her spirit guides. Recently onstage she was runner-up for Best Actress for The Sugar Bean Sisters at Sierra Madre Playhouse in Entertainment Today's annual Ticketholder Awards and appeared opposite THE HOUSE OF BESARAB's Dr. Van Helsing, Travis Holder, in the west coast premiere of Charles Mee's Summertime at Theatre @ Boston Court.
Miss deRousse explains, "I have been a psychic medium since I was a kid, and 'talked' to my spirit guides every night when I went to bed. Then when my grandma died, I was sure it was a mistake that everyone was crying beside her grave, because she was standing there winking at me saying, 'I'm OK, honey… I'm right here.'" But religious constraints and dogma caused deRousse to repress her gift for many years until the death of her mother in 2000, when medium Brian Hurst told her on first sight, "You know you can do this, right?" deRousse is now a noted psychic, medium, and animal communicator, also adept at helping people explore past lives. The historic 1929 Legion Hall, the place where Gable, Chaplin and Bogart hung out regularly at the Deco Bar and where parts of such films as Kubrick's The Shining and the new Star Trek were shot, as well as being the place where Marilyn Monroe and a host of famous starlets were introduced to the Hollywood community in the Legion's massive Auditorium, is not simply a breathtaking example of Hollywood's early 20th-century architectural grandiosity. It is also the place where the TV series America's Most Haunted searched for the facility's active spirit inhabitant Marshall Wyatt and found that more things went bump in the night there than they had originally anticipated. Wyatt, longtime Bar Manager of the Post who lived for 33 years in the building, died from a fall on one of the complex network of staircases he traversed on a daily basis—and many regulars there swear he never left.THE HOUSE OF BESARAB, which will be a much-needed benefit for the American Legion, is being produced and directed by Mr. Duddy under an Actors Equity Association Hollywood Area Theatre (H.A.T.) contract and stars Michael Hegedus as the suave but menacing Count Dracula alongside veteran Equity actors David Himes as Renfield, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Actor Award winner Travis Michael Holder as Dr. Van Helsing, Chase McKenna as Mina, and Dane Bowman as Jonathan Harker. Also featured are Terra Shelman as Dr. Seward, Jason Parsons as the resident wolf-hybrid, Miliza Milo as the gypsy woman, and Megan Harwick and Sara Spink as the Count's buxom pregnant vixens.
THE HOUSE OF BESARAB opens Thursday, Nov. 12 playing host to its psychic guests, and will continue to play Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9pm and Sundays at 8pm through Sunday, Dec. 20 at The Hollywood American Legion Post 43, located at 2035 N. Highland Av. in Hollywood, halfway between Franklin Avenue and the Hollywood Bowl. General admission is $40.00 (on-site parking is $5.00), or the special $55.00 package includes parking, one cocktail and hors d'oeuvres at intermission. There is a 25% discount for U.S. veterans and union members of SAG, AFTRA and AEA (with proper ID presented at the door). The Deco Bar, with a complete full service of alcoholic beverages, will open nightly one hour prior to that evening's showtime. DUE TO MATURE THEMES AND THE AVAILABILITY OF ALCOHOL, NO ONE UNDER 21 WILL BE ADMITTED!For tickets and further information, please call the special House of Besarab / Plays 411 hotline at 323.960.7612 or log on at www.plays411.com/besarab.
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